Predator [Blu-ray]full screen edition, arnold schwarzeneggerRambo meets Alien in this terrific science-fiction thriller from 1987, directed by John McTiernan just a year before Die Hard made him Hollywood’s most sought-after director of action-packed blockbusters. Arnold Schwarzenegger leads an elite squad of U.S. Army commandos to a remote region of South American jungle, where they’ve been assigned to search for South American officials who’ve been kidnapped by terrorists. Instead they find a bunch of skinned corpses hanging from the trees and realize that they’re now facing a mysterious and much deadlier threat. As the squad is picked off one by one, Arnold finds himself pitted against a hideous alien creature that’s heavily armed and wearing a spacesuit enabling the creature to render itself invisible. The title says it all in describing the relentless, escalating action that follows, maintained by McTiernan with an abundance of visual flair. The film’s special effects are still impressive, and stunning locations in the Mexican jungles create a combined atmosphere of verdant beauty and imminent danger. The plot doesn’t hold up to much scrutiny, but the movie’s so exciting and tightly paced that its weaknesses seem irrelevant. –Jeff Shannon
Rating:  List Price: $ 14.98 Price: $ 10.49 More Blu-Ray Products |
(out of 497 reviews)
Review by tony95 for Predator [Blu-ray]
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This is the worst quality Blu-Ray I have come across so far. $26.95 is outrageous for a DVD to Blu-Ray dub. Your probably better off getting the widescreen DVD than the Blu-Ray and playing the movie on upscaling DVD player, you will get the same quality. The movie is classic, just don’t buy the Blu-Ray version unless you find it in a bargin bin somewhere.
Review by Robert Owsley for Predator [Blu-ray]
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WOW what a bad looking print. Who the heck was in charge of this Blu-Ray transfer??? Does the ‘Ray’ stand for Ray Charles? because it looks as if a blind man choose to use this print! All the fuzzies, dots, lines, and blemishes on this print look ever better in hi-def! Why on earth can’t the original negative be used? If I’m gonna pay a higher price, then I should get a much better picture. Shame, shame, shame, on them.
Review by Ryan Agadoni for Predator [Blu-ray]
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My 1-star review is not for the movie, Predator, which I love. I bought it twice on DVD: the first single-disc release with no extras, and then the excellent 2-disc special edition. I am not going to be buying on Blu-Ray, however, until the chowder-heads over at Fox start including all of the ALREADY PRODUCED extras on their Blu-Ray discs. Case in point: Predator.
Predator on Blu-Ray features a higher definition transfer (though on a single layer disc), but carries over none of the special features from the 2-disc DVD. How hard would this have been? Make it a dual layer Blu-Ray, and just throw them all on there in standard definition. That would have guaranteed and instant buy for me. But this habit of dumping the film bare-bones onto Blu-Ray is reminiscent of the early days of DVD, and I thought we were past that. Other studios are doing a fine job of including all the special features, so why is Fox being dumb? And why are they slapping a $40 MSRP on a bare-bones release?
You would have had me with a good release, Fox. I would gladly plonk down the cash for a true upgrade from my DVD version. But you blew it, and you’re not getting my money.
Review by :::DIGITAL BABE::: for Predator [Blu-ray]
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There is NO WAY, that this film gets a cumulative 4/5. The ratings have been pulled over from the SD. Amazon, please consider adding a separate database field for PQ and AQ for the hi-def products.
This movie itself for me is a 5. I love it! The transfer- a nightmare. Tons of noise, color flutuation and light changes/artifacting. The picture is soft, too.
Fox/MGM were just (10/2008) given some of the worst ratings, for their Blu-Ray releases and I understand why. I am a huge fan of this franchise, and was incredibly excited to see this in hi-def. If 0 stars was an option, I’d give it a 0. This Blu-Ray transfer is among some of the worst that I have seen.
For the premium price paid for Blu-Ray I expect a pristine picture and sound. Fox/MGM I hope you’re listening. This truly is shameful!
I am thoroughly disappointed and all of the future MGM/Fox titles will be considered “rentals” until I see an review.
Review by J. R. Rankin for Predator [Blu-ray]
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I am quite disappointed in Fox’s decision to DNR the crap out of Predator. I know a lot of you probably don’t care, but Predator was never supposed to look as crystal clear as Avatar or a Pixar film. The problem with using DNR like this is that all of the fine detail of film is scrubbed away along with the film grain, which is why the actors and sets look like they are made of wax. One of the greatest aspects of the Blu-Ray format is it allows you to view films for the first time as they were intended to look: like films! What this release does is attempt to make Predator look as if it was shot on digital video yesterday, but of course a modern digital film wouldn’t have the detail of the picture removed like Predator has.
Now, the original Blu-Ray wasn’t great either, as it was an early effort from Fox that was delayed from release a long time, which is why it was poorly compressed on a single-layer disc with MPEG 2. However, I would still recommend that disc over this new one. What Fox should have done is create a new master going back to the original negatives, and perhaps SPARINGLY applied some DNR by people who knew what they were doing to sort out the inconsistencies of the grain in the first release.
The bottom line is I don’t support releases like this and I hope FOX or any other studio doesn’t continue to alter older films like this. I give this disc 2 stars instead of 1 because they included all the extras that should have been on the original disc, but for anyone that cares about film and the artistic intent of the filmmakers, stay away from this one!